Two Houston men have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a human smuggling operation that involved recruiting drivers on social media to transport undocumented immigrants. Richard Dell Carroll II, 26, and Josue Isaac Hernandez, 23, also known by his alias "Dre," have both been handed 66-month sentences, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Following their prison terms, they will be under supervised release for two years.
Seeking drivers nationwide, Carroll and Hernandez admitted guilt earlier this year to a conspiracy charge for transporting illegal aliens into Houston, offering monetary gains for their unlawful service. With claims of false employment at Tesla and enrollment at Rice University, Carroll had deceived those he brought into the scheme, portraying himself as an entrepreneur and financial adviser prepared to invest their earnings despite possessing no legitimate credentials. As they learned in court, Judge David S. Morales admonished Carroll to focus on his integrity in the future and cautioned him against making embellishments that could be believed and lead to fraud. On the flip side, carving a lifestyle of luxury, Hernandez spent his unscrupulous earnings on international flights and flying on private jets.
In detailing the harrowing journey of the smuggled individuals, the court pointed to numerous instances of cruelty, such as a seven-year-old girl sweating profusely inside a plastic bin after being separated from her mother and two young women forced into a fake speaker box that reached dangerous temperatures. Authorities linked over 100 apprehended undocumented immigrants to the duo during at least 53 smuggling attempts gone awry. Law enforcement started piecing together the smuggling attempts when they continuously found individuals hidden in car trunks within counterfeited speaker boxes and in large plastic containers covered with sheets.
Hernandez and Carroll, the court was told, operated a coordinated system using Instagram and various social media platforms to hire drivers for their smuggling operation. Besides sending shopping lists to their recruits, they would arrange for the construction of the deceptive speaker boxes they used to hide people. Drivers were charged $1,000 per person, ostensibly to recoup costs associated with the smuggling. Both men will remain in custody until they're transferred to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility, details of which have yet to be determined. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, was instrumental in bringing the investigation to a close, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara J. De Pena leading the prosecution.
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